Is this normal practice?
 

Just had a call from a person claiming to be from Virgin,saying that my computer was being bombarded with Trojans and malaware and was I experiencing any slow downs/speed ups on my computer.As soon as I said no,the line went dead.Any clues to what just happened.

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

Sounds like a scam to me. Avoid this type of call, our Internet security team communicate by letter and email to confirm issues like this.

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

Thanks for that.How come he knew my number,it is new and I have only had it a week or so and how come he knew I was with Virgin?

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

This type of call, and variations of it, are quite 'popular' lately. If you ring enough people in a day, at least some of them are going to be your target audience. For however many people say 'No.' or 'WTF?' and are hung up on, at least some will be more accepting, and the scam can commence.

A "We're from Microsoft and noticed you're infected" call was doing the rounds a few weeks ago too.

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

Many thanks for that RainmakerRaw.

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

I had one of these recently. I managed to string the scammer along on the phone for about 5 minutes before he got bored and hung up. :D

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

It just seems strange,that in all my years on the internet nothing like this has happened before.But as soon as I signed up with Virgin I've had cold callers and now this.It could be pure coincidence,but I'm a bit sceptical.

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

Have you taken a Virgin phone line? The number could already be on several scammer calling lists.

My own phone line has been in the TPS for years but there is definitely an increased number of unwanted calls over the past 18 months, first from tatty little UK operations who either don't care about the TPS or who somehow think I'll be delighted to hear from them so long as they are legitimately 'marketing' rather than 'sales' calls. Then there's the increased number of calls from overseas which are pretty hard to stop without a blanket block on calls with no CLI.

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

I have.I kept my old 10 digit phone number originally but Virgins voice mail doesn't like 10 digit numbers,so I had to have Virgin allocate me an 11 digit one.I have just signed up for TPS,but it will take at least 28 days to become active.

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

Just because the number is new to yourself it doesn;t mean to say that it's never been in circulation. Also although a VM number has the correct local prefix the number will be in a group dedicated to VM (unless a number is ported in/out of that group) For example the local VM numbers here all start with a 5 for VM and a 4 for BT

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

Makes sense.I didn't know about the local VM numbers differing from BT.Thanks for that .

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

You can report calls like this on the Action Fraud website or phone line just click the link below.

http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

Thanks.I've bookmarked that site.

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

TBH I usually play along with it then hurl abuse at them down the phone near the end.

Waste my time and Ill waste yours.

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

:)

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

I'd like to play with one caller, the usual "I'm sorry but I don't know computers that well can you explain to me in detail how to do it" routine would be comical.. Especially with the "sorry but it won't run on my win3.11 system" might send them a bit cuckoo!!

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

You can also register your phone number here to help reduce silent calls to your phone line.

Silent Call Gard.

http://www.ukdatait.co.uk/cgi-bin/sgAddNumber.cgi

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

Many thanks Masque.:nworthy:

Definetly!!!

People are getting calls from MICROSOFT saying the same thing.....

Dont panic..... SIMPLY HANG UP :)

Re: Is this normal practice?
 

They are fun to play with. Especially when I believe that I know more about PC's than they do. Had two of these calls so far.

Especially the one that wanted me to install teamviewer so that he could "help you make some changes", so I created a sandbox account on my PC (it runs Linux), installed the linux version of teamviewer on that account, and giggled at his confusion when nothing worked as he expected.

He hung up on me, how rude!